Carleton University Brings it at Day 1 of the OUA ChampionshipsBy: Andre Marchand(2012/03/02)

Once again this year the Ontario University Association (OUA) Championship was held at the continuously varying and winding trails of Laurentian University in Sudbury this past weekend. With a large dump of fresh snow Friday, the trails had great coverage and thanks to some excellent grooming we were treated to another weekend of perfect tracks! This year Carleton sent another strong team, with 8 men and 8 women wearing the colours! Here is a recap from Saturday, the first day of racing for this event.

The men followed suit in their 10 km individual race, which was two laps of the same course. The finishing positions in order were Peter Beisel 2nd, edging out 3rd place Lee Hawkings, Logan Potter 5th, Nansen Murray 7th, Kyle Power 9th, Andre Marchand 13th, Matt Brown 19th and Devan Fair in 25th.

Peter flying up the steep hill, maybe this is where he got that 1 second advantage over 3rd? ;)

Lee in a Lakehead University sandwich... Mmmm, pain!

And when the dust settled... the Men's 10 km Classic podium! Nice work Peter & Lee!!!

The Second half of the day: 3x 2.5 km Skate Relay

The top six racers from Carleton were placed into the Carleton A and B teams for the ever important 3 x 2.5 km relay. This event is always an exciting but painful race because it is only 3 hours after the morning race. So with tired legs but awesome determination, the Carleton racers took the start line once again!

The teams in order of position (start - middle - anchor) for the relay:

Women’s A team consisted of Kendra, Ingrid and Anna. The B team was made up of Kyla, Liza and Holly.

Men’s A team consisted of Peter, Logan, and Lee. The B team was composed of Kyle, Nansen and myself.

Both the Women’s and Men’s relay teams took the 2nd and 3rd places on the podium, but the A team held off the B team in both categories (even after all the bantering between the men’s teams). The woman’s A team narrowly missed out on the gold in an exciting photo finish against Lakehead University! To quote a male Toronto skier watching the women’s finish, “Dude I’m pretty sure I can’t ski as fast as that!” Yep, the Carleton girls were flying!!!

Ingrid flying into the stadium for end of her leg!

The Women's relay podium, with both Carleton A & B team!!!

Logan and Nansen climbing "the Wall"... they just can't wait to tag off!

The Men's relay podium, again containg the Carleton A & B team!!!

Overall some great racing from the whole Carleton team and a good showing for the XC Ottawa athletes who were all on the podium in the relay!!!